Watchmen #2
The Arédit-Artima Watchmen series holds a specific place in French comics history as the very first translation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's landmark work to reach French readers in any form, debuting in October 1987 and running only two issues before the series was discontinued. The underlying source material — the DC maxiseries Watchmen — is itself one of the most consequential works in the medium's history: the only graphic novel to appear on Time magazine's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels and the only graphic novel to win a Hugo Award. As the second and final album in this short-lived French run, this issue represents the abrupt end of Arédit-Artima's attempt to bring Moore's superhero deconstruction to a Francophone audience, just as the publisher itself was winding down operations. The truncation of the series after only two albums means the Arédit-Artima edition is an incomplete and historically curious artifact — a French publishing dead-end for one of the defining texts of the copper age.
In "Le juge de la Terre," reporter Victor Szasz—known to the world as the faceless vigilante Question—faces a deadly race against time after seizing a damning tape exposing the mayor of his city, Wesley Fermin. Written by Dennis O'Neil and brought to life by Denys Cowan’s striking art, Rick Magyar’s inks, and Tatjana Wood’s evocative colors, this issue pulses with tension as Szasz’s investigation takes a perilous turn. The cover by Bill Sienkiewicz captures the mood with its stark, haunting imagery.
In the shadowed streets of a corrupt city, the faceless detective Vic Sage—known to the world as The Question—races against time after uncovering a damning tape implicating Mayor Wesley Fermin in a web of power and deceit. With only hours left and a trail leading through dangerous alliances and hidden motives, he must piece together the truth before the secrets consume him, even as Lady Shiva and the enigmatic Aristotle "Tot" Rodor enter the game.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Arédit-Artima was a French publisher with roots in the 1950s that had been operating under the combined Arédit and Artima imprints since 1962, following acquisition by Presses de la Cité; publication continued through 1987 using both names, making Watchmen one of their very last projects. The Arédit-Artima Watchmen edition launched in October 1987 — the same year DC's own trade paperback collection of the original 12-issue series appeared — making this simultaneous with the work's international breakout moment. The series was packaged as oversized albums: album #1 (October 1987) bundled the translated content of US Watchmen #1 and #2 together with a 10-page Question backup story, and album #2 (December 1987) continued the series before it was cut short; a competing and more complete French edition had already launched through the publisher Zenda under the title Watchmen – Les Gardiens in September 1987, which likely contributed to the Arédit run's early termination.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Title of the underlying US issue (DC Watchmen #2, October 1986): 'Absent Friends' — part 2 of the 12-issue maxiseries written by Alan Moore with art, inks, and lettering by Dave Gibbons, colored by John Higgins, and edited by Len Wein.
- The Arédit-Artima series is documented as the very first French translation of Watchmen ever published, predating or running concurrently with the rival Zenda/Les Gardiens French edition that launched in September 1987.
- The Arédit-Artima run lasted only two albums (October and December 1987), making it one of the shortest and most incomplete foreign editions of Watchmen ever released.
- Album #1 of the Arédit-Artima series collected both US Watchmen #1 and #2 in a single volume, alongside a 10-page backup story featuring The Question (written by Dennis O'Neil, art by Denys Cowan) — a character whose comics-ancestor directly inspired Moore's Rorschach.
- The DC source issue 'Absent Friends' introduces in flashback the full Minutemen roster — including Dollar Bill, Silhouette, Mothman, Captain Metropolis, and Hooded Justice — whose backgrounds are fleshed out through excerpts of the fictional autobiography Under the Hood by Hollis Mason (the first Nite Owl); these are the first substantial depictions of several of these characters.
- The issue depicts the 1940 Minutemen group photograph scene and the Comedian's attempted assault on Sally Jupiter (the original Silk Spectre), which is revealed as a formative trauma at the moral core of the entire series.
- The issue title 'Absent Friends' is drawn from an Elvis Costello song, 'The Comedians,' with a passage quoted at the issue's close — an example of Moore's recurring practice of anchoring each chapter to an external literary or musical text.
- The Watchmen series as a whole went on to win the Eisner Award for Best Finite Series (1988), the Hugo Award for Other Forms (1988), and multiple Harvey Awards, and the DC trade paperback collection helped popularize the 'graphic novel' format for bookstore distribution worldwide.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints World's Finest Comics #274 (1981), Batman and the Outsiders #21 (1985), Watchmen #3 (1986), The Question #1 (1987)
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